||Pe"po (?), n. [L., a kind of melon, from Gr. &?;.] (Bot.) Any fleshy
||fruit with a firm rind, as a pumpkin, melon, or gourd. See Gourd.
Pep"per (?), n. [OE. peper, AS. pipor, L. piper, fr. Gr. &?;, &?;, akin
to Skr. pippala, pippali.] 1. A well-known, pungently aromatic
condiment, the dried berry, either whole or powdered, of the Piper
nigrum.
Common, or black, pepper is made from the whole berry, dried just
before maturity; white pepper is made from the ripe berry after the
outer skin has been removed by maceration and friction. It has less of
the peculiar properties of the plant than the black pepper. Pepper is
used in medicine as a carminative stimulant.
2. (Bot.) The plant which yields pepper, an East Indian woody climber
(Piper nigrum), with ovate leaves and apetalous flowers in spikes
opposite the leaves. The berries are red when ripe. Also, by extension,
any one of the several hundred species of the genus Piper, widely
dispersed throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the earth.
3. Any plant of the genus Capsicum, and its fruit; red pepper; as, the
bell pepper.
The term pepper has been extended to various other fruits and plants,
more or less closely resembling the true pepper, esp. to the common
varieties of Capsicum. See Capsicum, and the Phrases, below.
African pepper, the Guinea pepper. See under Guinea. -- Cayenne pepper.
See under Cayenne. -- Chinese pepper, the spicy berries of the
Xanthoxylum piperitum, a species of prickly ash found in China and
Japan. -- Guinea pepper. See under Guinea, and Capsicum. -- Jamaica
pepper. See Allspice. -- Long pepper. (a) The spike of berries of Piper
longum, an East Indian shrub. (b) The root of Piper, or Macropiper,
methysticum. See Kava. -- Malaguetta, or Meleguetta, pepper, the
aromatic seeds of the Amomum Melegueta, an African plant of the Ginger
family. They are sometimes used to flavor beer, etc., under the name of
grains of Paradise. -- Red pepper. See Capsicum. -- Sweet pepper bush
(Bot.), an American shrub (Clethra alnifolia), with racemes of fragrant
white flowers; -- called also white alder. -- Pepper box or caster, a
small box or bottle, with a perforated lid, used for sprinkling ground
pepper on food, etc. -- Pepper corn. See in the Vocabulary. -- Pepper
elder (Bot.), a West Indian name of several plants of the Pepper
family, species of Piper and Peperomia. -- Pepper moth (Zoˆl.), a
European moth (Biston betularia) having white wings covered with small
black specks. -- Pepper pot, a mucilaginous soup or stew of vegetables
and cassareep, much esteemed in the West Indies. -- Pepper root.
(Bot.). See Coralwort. -- pepper sauce, a condiment for the table, made
of small red peppers steeped in vinegar. -- Pepper tree (Bot.), an
aromatic tree (Drimys axillaris) of the Magnolia family, common in New
Zealand. See Peruvian mastic tree, under Mastic.
Pep"per, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Peppered (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Peppering.]
1. To sprinkle or season with pepper.
2. Figuratively: To shower shot or other missiles, or blows, upon; to
pelt; to fill with shot, or cover with bruises or wounds. "I have
peppered two of them." "I am peppered, I warrant, for this world."
Shak.
Pep"per, v. i. To fire numerous shots (at).
Pep"per*brand` (?), n. (Bot.) See 1st Bunt.
Pep"per*corn` (?), n. 1. A dried berry of the black pepper (Piper
nigrum).